I'd still recall the times when I was in the bright spotlight of my teenage years. I won't forget that. During those times I was the school achiever. I've won a lot of awards in Leadership,Student of the Year, etc... I was the Editor-in-Chief of our school journal, President of Student Council, Corps Commander of Phil. Military Training(not to mention the organization where I used to look for). But I was born on a very poor family. Poor because my parents can't afford to send us in school. It's a good thing that I was a Brgy. scholar,they paid my education. Poor to describe because we only eat rice at lunch with only coconut milk as ulam. I experienced a lot of teary moments during meals. Ginataang saging sa umaga-nilagang gabi sa gabi. Or lugaw sa umaga- lugaw ulit sa gabi. How do you feel to take a bath using bar soap as your body wash and shampoo? Or have you experienced to brush your teeth with salt for a month alternately with toothpaste for the next month to come? Or read a book or review a lesson with a dim light of gasera? Went to school with dried fish and a bit rice as your lunch put crowdedly in banana leaf as your lunchbox? Woke up early and take a bath in a cold breeze of air while you are in a well? I also went to school with no single centavo inside my pocket. I have experienced difficulties and survived many adversities. It has been a decade ago when after I graduated in HS I have made the biggest and hardest decision of my life. I have passed the DOST scholarship in a course that I wanted to take on a school that I wanted to go with. But lo,here is my father who dont want to support me. Here are my siblings who need my support.(for actually I can provide material help for them and send them to school and let them escape from the poverty that I already experienced. So I turn down my scholarship. I love my siblings and that is what matters. I didn't thought about myself nor my future. But God is so good. He handled me over to a job that I enjoyed and I forgot my dreams about myself....and the rest is history. I am now a servant of God. I no longer desire to become the person that I used to dream before. For as long as I am in the presence of God, I am satisfied.
